[Bf-interface] More ideas on improving panel usability

[Julian Eisel]

Eeek, just noted I opened the panel from a drag area in the .gif I
sent. Of course, it wouldn't open/close in the drag area, I just
haven't implemented the functionality yet, so just ignore it :S

On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 7:40 PM, Julian Eisel <eiseljulian at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey there,
>
> Funnily, finding a good way to expose the drag-ability of panels is
> exactly what I was playing with the entire day and I'm still not sure
> what the "best" solution is.
>
> Issue with your proposal is, that it heavily conflicts with panel
> drag-collapse which is now possible in master
> (https://developer.blender.org/rBSa4203814d1f52f475aad6fbe90bdeb2edec19d4a
> - just click+drag over a bunch of panels). Although I quite like your
> idea, I'm also not a big fan of having to change the panel
> drag-collapse behaviour so that you have to hold ctrl or so. It's
> already hard enough to discover it.
> But maybe we can keep it in mind as a good "Plan B" for the case we
> don't find a good "Plan A"? ;)
>
> This is btw the current state of things, it's okay but I'm not totally
> happy about it: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=88860
> I still have some other ideas for this, but I'm open for more ;)
>
> Cheers,
> - Julian -
>
> On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 4:52 PM, S A <lockalsash at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  Hi all,
>>
>> recently there were a number of improvements for panels in
>> UI-graphical-redesign branch. I think we could go further and remove
>> drag grippers by joining expand/drag zones. I formed a mockup in
>> jquery (ignore the color of checkboxes):
>>
>> https://jsfiddle.net/Lockal/uD5hu/8/embedded/result/
>>
>> Interaction design explanation:
>> * When user generates a mousedown event on panel header, ui code
>> starts tracking the cursor
>> * If manhattan distance of cursor is above threshold (e. g. delta_x +
>> delta_y > 7) and LMB is still down, dragging starts at delta position
>> * If user release LMB below threshold, ui code treats this as
>> collapse/expand operation.
>>
>> Note, there are also few important side improvements to be implemented:
>> * Highlight the panel header on mouseover (already done in
>> UI-graphical-redesign branch)
>> * Replace cursor to finger on mouseover to resemble finger drag paradigm.
>>
>> The adaptation time is short! After finishing the mockup in jquery I'm
>> constantly trying to drag panels by header in blender, even though it
>> is not implemented yet.
>>
>> --Sv. Lockal
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